Let's start by saying "hats off!" to Frontiers Music SRL once again for keeping the flame of Melodic Heavy Rock alight and alive, and this rerelease/rerecording of Back On Earth from Girish & the Chronicles is up there with some of their finest and, some would say more established acts. I say this because I have never heard of this splendid hard, yet melodic, rocking band with a sound build on the foundations of many 80's rockers, many still with us and producing music of a lesser quality than this.  Must be a band from the heartlands of this music surely from the West Coast of America?  Wrong.

Girish & the Chronicles are from Gangtok India.  I don't know why this should surprise me, it actually makes me feel a bit ashamed for doing so, I mean we don't bat an eyelid for any number of Scandinavian bands producing music of this sound and genre, so why the fuss?  If it's good its good right?  DAMN RIGHT!

Back On Earth was the bands debut originally released in 2014.  This is not a release per se, it is a rerecording, a freshening up for a new global audience, which the band deserves.

There is a distinct 80's Hard Rockin' vibe to the album, but with a 2023 production. Opening track "Ride To Hell" gives you everything both barrels.  Drums driver the song along, guitars wail and groove along, and the vocals are Fuckin' amazing! The ability to hit the high notes with enough of a gruff edge to sound dirty, Girish Pradhan has a set of pipes for sure.  "Loaded" illustrates this point exactly! Girish says this and "Angel" were the only two vocals given the full rerecord, which shows how good the other 10 songs must have been before.

I cannot deny we have all heard this type of music before, heck I'm a dude who grew up in the 80's and was always a fan of bands with a hard, but melodic edge to their sound, and GATC (as they are known) would have been on the list with the likes of SKID ROW ("Loaded" could be off their first album) KEEL, RATT, G 'n' R, and others for sure.

Are sone of the song titles a bit cheesy, yes they are. "Shot By Cupid, Touched By The Devil", "I Wanna Get That Lovin Again" and "Born With Big Attitude", but really who cares when the songs Rock so flippin' hard!

And like any good 80's opus there are the "panty-wetter's", the ballads.  "Angel" the piano driven one with the vocals that stay just the right side of hysterical, "Yesterdays", the wistful one and "Smile Little Child", the syrupy one that for a Diabetic like me, would push my blood-sugar levels dangerously high.  Perhaps one ballad too many? Perhaps.

Then we get to the last 3 songs. "The Revolving Barrel" (nope me either) is a big-assed Blues Rocker, with dirty guitars and filthy vocals over a nasty (in a good way) bass/drums combo that pound the song along. "The Golden Crown" (yes again no clue), the most rocking number of the lot.  Itreally reminds me of someone, but I cannot put my finger on it, but I love it anyway! And finally "End Of Civilization" with its apocalyptic air-raid sirens and loud as all heck wall of sound, harking back to the 70's.  The vocals are at their heaviest and remind me a bit of a heavier THE DEAD DAISEYS, perhaps because Girish's vocals take on a John Colrabi tone.

These last 3 songs take on a different tone sonically to the rest of the album, which jars a bit.  The quality is way up there, but it does sound a bit like a band who though "guys we need to toughen this up".  I like them a lot, but it does make the album finish in a different place than it started, so I'm afraid I have to drop a point or two for that and the one too many ballads.